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Renewables Provided 44% of Germany’s Electricity in October

Germany added 2.3 gigawatts of new onshore wind capacity in the first half of 2017. Though it failed to meet the target last year, the Renewable Energy Act set an annual target of installing 2.5 gigawatts of new solar capacity.

Add in a warm autumn and the winter storms Xavier and Herwart, and it is easy to see how renewables provided 44.1% of Germany’s electricity in October, Clean Technica reported. A press release from Germany Trade and Invest showed that renewables produced more than 38% overall of Germany’s energy production so far this year.

Wind energy produced 82.12 terawatt hours as of November 13. Biomass, solar and hydro followed with 40.10 TWh, 37.5 TWh and 16.84 TWh, respectively. Though brown coal is still the nation’s leading source, its share of the energy pie is decreasing.

“This is another fantastic return for the time and money that has been put into renewable energy sources. Germany is a global leading market in the area of electricity generation through renewable sources. Further market opportunities come though innovation and cost reduction such as through big data, blockchain technologies and with the coupling of the heat and mobility sector,” said Esther Frey, director of energy, environment and raw materials at federal economic development agency Germany Trade & Invest. “We also see strong growth for storage technologies. The number of small home storage systems has grown by 113% per year on average since 2013, while large-scale batteries supporting the electricity grid increased tenfold within that period.”

The big question is whether Germany will be able to meet its target of at least 80% renewable energy by 2050.

The transformation of the entire power sector to renewables is not a target of the present German federal government. A minimum share of 80% renewables by 2050 is foreseen, but the government sees the necessity of also setting an upper target.